Resource detail

Scientists have created high-resolution maps of points around the globe where groundwater meets the oceans the first such analysis of its kind that may help protect both drinking water and the seas. In a study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, researchers from the Ohio State University in the US showed that nearly half of fresh submarine groundwater discharge flows into the ocean near the tropics. They also found that regions near active fault lines the area around the San Andreas Fault in California, for example, send greater volumes of groundwater into the ocean than regions that are tectonically stable.